Security

The headlines from last month's Iranian nuclear talks in Istanbul could not have been more misleading: "Iran is ready to resolve nuclear issues. " The accumulation of historical fact in this long crisis proves just the opposite: The Iranian regime is bent on acquiring a nuclear weapon, and will take full advantage of diplomacy toward this end if allowed to do so, including this week's talks in Baghdad. Indeed, the Iranian strategy of exploiting diplomacy to further advance the nuclear program is a matter of regime policy.

About 3,000 Venezuelan soldiers have been sent to bolster security along the border with Colombia after the neighboring country's main rebel group carried out a deadly attack on a Colombian army patrol in the frontier region, Venezuela's defense minister said Thursday. Gen. Henry Rangel, who is leading the security operation near the border, said the additional troops were dispatched earlier this week, according to the state-run Venezuelan News Agency. Colombian officials have said that guerrillas from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, staged an attack...

With the school year winding down, Tufts University administrators met recently with students planning to study abroad, outlining what they should do before they leave and what to expect when they arrive. Above all, they stressed the risks - and ways to minimize them. But with an audience of young adults eager to see the world and seize adventure, it was hard to know whether the warnings truly hit home. "I think the message gets through," said Sheila Bayne, who directs the university's study-abroad program.

Liquid Metal Battery Corp. announced today it has raised an additional $15 million in funding, completing its Series B round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures. The company's Series A round investors, Bill Gates of Microsoft fame and the energy company Total, fully participated in this Series B round, Liquid Metal Battery Corp. said. The Cambridge company is working on commercializing a new battery technology that seeks to transform grid-scale electricity storage.

Italian security officials have increased security at 14,000 potential targets following the shooting of a nuclear energy company official and letter bombs directed at the tax collection agency. The Interior Ministry on Thursday announced the enhanced measures, which also include assigning bodyguards to 550 individuals. The measures call for the deployment of 16,000 law enforcement officers. The Informal Anarchist Federation anarchist group claimed responsibility for shooting Ansaldo Nucleare CEO Roberto Adinolfi in the leg and pledged further actions against the parent company,...

Basic standards of fairness require immigration cases involving married gay couples to be treated the same as heterosexual couples. But so far, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing such marriages. As a result, legally married same-sex couples can't petition for a green card for their foreign spouses. Sometimes, those spouses are deported. Since the Obama administration announced in 2011 that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex couples in this situation have been in limbo.

PacSafe's new messenger bags combine the sleekness and function of traditional over-the-shoulder travel bags with James Bond-like security features. The antitheft MeshSafe M100 has strong but flexible stainless steel wire built into its front and bottom panels and shoulder strap, making them slash-proof. The adjustable shoulder strap also has a built-in combination lock with an attached wire that allows you to secure the zippers to fend off pickpockets or lock the bag to a fixed object to prevent it from being snatched.

WASHINGTON -- A labor union is reporting significant security problems at seven Army bases where federal contractors are guarding the gates, freeing up soldiers to serve in Iraq. Based on interviews with 15 current and former guards, the Service Employees International Union said job screening is often inadequate and security checks at the gates are frequently cursory because staffing levels are low. The Wackenhut security company says the union is leveling false allegations in a campaign aimed at signing up the firm's 35,000 guards as SEIU members.

BAGHDAD - Iraq will assign police officers to safeguard its archeological heritage, the government said yesterday, announcing plans to protect sites such as the ancient city of Babylon that were left vulnerable to looting after the US invasion in 2003. Iraqi forces are preparing to take over their own security under a recently approved pact with the United States that requires US troops to withdraw by the end of 2011. Lieutenant General Hussein al-Awadi, the commander of Iraq's National Police force, said a new agency will be created to secure archeological sites, which are...

WASHINGTON - A top executive of the private security contractor hired to protect the US Embassy in Afghanistan was informed in July 2008 of alleged illegal and immoral conduct by guards, lawyers for a whistle-blower suing the company said yesterday. The claim contradicts the sworn testimony of Samuel Brinkley, a vice president for Wackenhut Services, the owner of ArmorGroup North America. Brinkley told the Commission on Wartime Contracting under oath Monday that he and other corporate officials outside of Afghanistan did not know until a few weeks ago of...

The woman who caused a security scare that resulted in a flight from Paris to Charlotte, N.C., being diverted to Bangor, Maine, will not be charged but will be returned to France, federal prosecutors in Maine said today. Lucie Zeeko Marigot, 41, was investigated by the FBI on possible charges of interfering with a flight crew throughout Tuesday night and into this morning. She appeared before US Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk this afternoon, prosecutors said. But prosecutors told the court that, based on further...

MONTPELIER - A federal program aimed at identifying illegal immigrants who are arrested for crimes expanded to Vermont Tuesday, touching off opposition from advocacy groups for immigrants. Those groups say the Secure Communities program was implemented without consulting state officials, and they fear it will destroy a trust that most of Vermont's law enforcement community has worked to build with the immigrant community. The program enables police to check the status of suspected illegal immigrants by sharing their fingerprints with the Department of Homeland...

Security has been stepped up for employees of a German magazine and for members of a small far-right party after a known terrorist called for them to be killed in a video online, officials said Tuesday. The video surfaced May 18 on YouTube following street clashes between an ultraconservative Muslim group and the far-right Pro NRW party in Bonn and Solingen, in western Germany. Three security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they have no specific evidence that attacks are being planned in the wake of the video.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan says his officers' contact with prostitutes at a Colombian hotel last month produced no breach of national security plans for President Barack Obama's visit to the South American country. "At the time the misconduct occurred, none of the individuals involved … had received any specific protective information, sensitive security documents, firearms, radios or other security related equipment in their hotel rooms," Sullivan said in testimony prepared for his first public accounting Wednesday of the humiliating scandal...

The government has sued several big banks over toxic mortgage securities they issued that were bought by two small Illinois banks which failed in May 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which seized the two banks when they failed, filed the civil lawsuits Friday in federal court. The agency named as defendants banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and HSBC. The FDIC says the banks made false statements and deceived investors about the risks in...

CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama and fellow NATO leaders solidified plans Monday for an ‘‘irreversible transition" in Afghanistan, affirming their commitment to ending the deeply unpopular war in 2014 and voicing confidence in the ability of Afghan forces to take the lead for securing their country even sooner. The alliance leaders, meeting for a second day of talks in Obama's hometown, declared in a summit communique that while NATO will maintain a significant presence in Afghanistan after 2014, ‘‘this will not be a combat mission.

A shoplifting suspect was seriously injured yesterday when he leaped over a third-floor railing at a Cambridge mall and plummeted to the first floor after fleeing from security staff, police said. Cambridge police spokesman Dan Riviello said in e-mail that security guards stopped the man outside a clothing store at the CambridgeSide Galleria Mall about 3:40 p.m. The man, whose name is not being released because he has not been booked, fled and hopped over the railing, Riviello said.

If you regularly fly out of Logan International Airport, going through security may become faster and less intrusive by the end of the year. Under an expansion of the federal Transportation Security Administration's "risk-based security" initiative, some travelers will not have to remove their shoes, light outerwear, jackets, or belts as they make their way to departure gates. They also might be able to keep their laptop computers and small containers of fluids - such as shampoo - in carry-on luggage during the screening process.

BEIRUT - A car bomb in the parking lot of a Syrian military compound killed at least nine people Saturday, the latest in increasingly frequent bombings in the country's major cities to target the regime's security services. President Obama said that the members of the Group of Eight industrial nations support the UN peace plan for Syria but that it had not taken hold fast enough. In Damascus, top United Nations' peacekeeping and military officials met with Syrian officials to try to salvage that peace plan, which has been marred by daily violence and dismissed by the opposition as...

We honor the animal world all the time in our metaphors: birds in the hand, eggs unhatched, early birds, curious cats. But we tend not to turn to the animal world for policy advice. The big human problems—climate change, the war on terror, disease prevention—seem to demand human brainpower. Sometimes, though, suggests marine ecologist Rafe Sagarin, we might consider consulting some humbler creatures. A decade ago, Sagarin was studying tide pools as a researcher when he was invited to Washington, D.C., as a congressional science fellow.